A Role to Play
by GeekyGamerCat
Summary: Peter wakes up in an alternate reality, where Uncle Ben is alive; Eddie is his adopted brother/cousin, and Gwen may or may not have super powers. Thankfully, Peter's not alone in this mad world as Flash and Harry are stuck in this mess, too and an upcoming musical might be their only escape. Spec Spidy A.U. takes after S2. No cursing in reviews please.
1. Chapter 1

**Hiya folks, been working pretty hard on this story, this was originally going to ve a one-shot but I just kept going going so it's gonna be a short story instead. also I hope you all enjoy the Gwen and Eddie I have in this AU they are prototypes of a spider-gwen story I've been working on. **

Chap. 1

Peter slept lazily in his bed as he felt the morning sunshine through the window. The sound of birds chirped outside in blissful ignorance when they were drowned out by the buzzing of an alarm clock. Automatically turning it off, he let a few more minutes pass…

"Peter, up and at'em, kiddo or you'll be late for school!"

"In a minute, Uncle Ben," the brown-haired boy muttered into his pillow. Then his eyes shot open into a blurry vision. Did he just hear his uncle Ben?! He quickly grabbed his glasses from the nightstand, and threw the covers off as his uncle walked into the room.

"Hey Kiddo, your aunt made pancakes hurry up downstairs before they get cold." The smiling man older man said, "You don't want to go to school hungry, now do you?" the man then found himself wrapped into a hug.

"Uncle Ben, you're okay…wait, is today the day of the field trip to E.S.U. campus?" Peter asked fretting that this might be another Symbiote induced dream. Everything felt real, though, so he was feeling unsure.

"You mean the one with the spiders and lizards?" the boy nodded in response, "sorry, Kiddo, that was a month ago. Now come on and get dressed; Gwen and Eddie are already down in the kitchen." Ben then left out of the room. Peter went to get his shirt when he paused…

_Wait…a month… Eddie… what's going on here?!_

As Peter got downstairs he expected to see a smirking Eddie in black, but saw a familiar-looking midtown jersey, and Gwen was sitting a little _too_ close to him. "Morning Gwen…morning _Bro_," Peter addressed the latter rather darkly.

"Morning Pete," Eddie said innocently as he ran the last bit of his pancake into the syrup covered plate. "Sleep well?" he watched as Peter sat down cautiously next to Gwen. "I'm guessing not…"

"Well, it's about time you came down, Slowpoke." Gwen addressed him in a somewhat playful manner with a reserved toothy grin. Come to think of it, Gwen looked a little different; she had a black headband, an oversized pink t-shirt with black pants with a white hoodie tied around her waist, and her glasses were thinly black-rimmed circles.

"I was just about to challenge Eddie for you helping." She said as she swung an arm to the back of her chair. Eddie, now curious at what her game would be, he gave his own playful smirk.

"Oh, and what challenge, pray tell, would that be?" the tall and muscular boy asked in a somewhat British accent. Gwen then grew a smile that could put the Cheshire cat to shame. Or Venom.

"The greatest game of all of mankind…" she said in an upbeat tone and then paused for dramatic effect, and spoke in a normal tone, "rock, paper, scissors." She then made a very silly face causing Eddie to snort in amusement. He then shook his head as he saw his phone vibrate. Eddie left the room to take the call. Gwen seemed to deflate a bit when he went out of the room.

Still unsure of this 'dream,' Peter decides to talk to Gwen about his 'bro.' "Hey, Gwen, what's Eddie doing here?" he asked seriously; the tone got her attention. She gave him a confused look and he elaborated, "Why's he here at my house?"

"Eh…because he… lives…here?" now it was Pete's turn to be confused, "your aunt and uncle adopted him; he's lived here as long as you have. Did you hit your head last night or somethin?" her tone became nonchalant but she eyed him skeptically. This 'Gwen' was seemed a little more 'observing.' "Seriously, dude, you're acting weird."

Before Peter could come up with an excuse, Aunt May walked in, "Morning Peter, are you feeling okay? You've hardly touched your breakfast." She then handed Gwen a coffee mug with a logo that said 'Fantastic Four' in blue font. (Ooh, thanks Mrs. Parker!)

"I'm not feeling too hungry this morning, Aunt May." Peter lied, "I think I'll skip breakfast for today."

"Skip breakfast," Uncle Ben repeated incredulously as he overheard. "Why that's the most important meal of the day, and since when do you turn down your Aunt's pancakes?"

"It's okay, Ben," May called from behind and then turned back to her nephew. "Peter, just make sure to eat a snack at least, I don't want you getting sick as Gwen did on last month's field trip." After she said that, Gwen gave her Coffee a hard swallow.

"Heh, yeah, silly me got too excited and forgot to eat breakfast, not to mention I came down with a cold." She said in a nervous-like tone; closed her eyes and smiled. She then took another swig of her coffee.

Then Eddie rushed back in with his leather jacket on and helmet in his hands. He looked flustered, "Hey that was Ann, her car broke down, I'm going to go pick her up on my motorcycle and take her to school while her car gets towed."

"Isn't that the girl that broke up with you?" Aunt May asked as she grabbed Peter's untouched breakfast. Instead of receiving an answer, though, the tall boy gave her a peck on the cheek, gave Ben a quick hug and Pete a brotherly pat on the shoulder. Peter fought a glare creeping in his face.

"Hey don't forget that we have an assembly before classes today," Gwen commented rather offhandedly as Eddie pushed his way to her. Her demeanor going more aloof and guarded as Eddie ruffled her hair and flew out the door. She frowned as her gaze lingered on the door.

"I don't know what that boy sees in that girl," Ben said shaking his head drawing back attention. "Getting twitter patted all over a love letter he's not even sure who wrote." Peter caught a silent look from Aunt May that was directed at the blond next to him. The girl looked like she wanted to crawl under the table.

Gwen suddenly checked the time, "H-hey, Pete, we need to go or we'll miss the bus!" She grabbed her backpack and swung it on her shoulders and said bye to Aunt May and Uncle Ben. The girl was practically pushing Peter out the door.

As the two teens got to School, Peter was trying to figure out why this dream was happening. He can't remember what he did yesterday, and now he had no powers.

"Well this is where we part ways," Gwen said to Peter almost sounding hurt. "I'll go in first so Liz won't think we're together or anything."

"What, why?" Peter looked at her in confusion, "we always hang out."

"It's your idea, not mine, besides I don't to 'scare her away' with my 'abrasiveness'." She said implying that Peter had told her that. Peter looked at her dumbfounded but before he could get anything else out of her she left standing in the center of the courtyard.

_Man, how could this dream get any worse?_

Pete's brooding and confusion then was suddenly interrupted when something caught his eye. Looking at the ground of the courtyard he noticed a football roll at his feet.

"Hey, Loser, pass me the ball," a random jock yell. As he went to pick up the ball a thought occurred to him. Could Gwen have gotten bit by the spider in this dream world? As he held the ball in his hand he saw that a confused and unsuspecting Gwen was now talking to Harry. They were standing at the entry stairs.

The jock was now near her so it would be a perfect time for his theory. Rearing back to make it look like he was tossing the ball hoping that Gwen would dodge it…

_Thwack!_

She didn't.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Gwen, I was trying to throw the ball back over." Peter apologized to Gwen as she placed tissue in her nose to stop the blood from coming out.

"Yeah well watch where you aim next time, will ya!" she angrily seethed at him and stomped to her locker. Then Harry walked up to them looking nervous. His hands were a twitching mess and his eyes darted around frantically.

"Hey, Pete, good to see you, started wearing your glasses, again?" Harry minced his words together going super-fast. Peter gave a shocked look to his friend, was he not part of this topsy-turvy world?

The question, though, didn't go unnoticed by Gwen, "again? Harry, he's always wearing glasses," she glared at the two skeptically and continued. "Okay, I need to take my A.D.D. meds before this assembly starts. When I get back from the Nurse's office, you guys better be back to normal and no more of this crazy nonsense."

She then rushed off by passing Harry. She had no idea of the confused look both boys were sharing, this Gwen had attention problems? What else was different here?

Peter then approached the ginger-haired boy cautiously, "Okay Harry, I need to ask you something. Did you wake up to anything weird this morning?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah, my dad is alive; I thought I was dreaming but he's alive. Then when I greet Gwen and asked if she wanted to go on a date to celebrate she looked at me like I had two heads. What about you?"

"Well, my uncle's alive, Gwen lives next door to me, and Eddie is literally my bro or cousin or whatever…" Peter said.

"Did we go back in time?" Harry asked feeling uncertain about how to act right now. He was still mad at Peter for being Spider-Man's 'buddy' and trying to take Gwen away from him, but this Gwen he just met seemed moody.

"Either that or we're in an alternate universe." Peter said as he noticed Flash coming towards them. "Uh-oh, I think we might have trouble."

"Hey, Parker, Osborne, I need to talk to you." Flash said walking up to them and then stopped looking shocked at Peter. "Oh great I really did go crazy, Parker's gone back to having four-eyes…" he commented more to himself. He then spoke to them again looking rather apologetic, "you know what, forget I said anything."

"Wait, Flash," Peter called after him and the blond turn around to face him. "Do you remember anything yesterday?"

Flash scoffed, but also looked somewhat relieved, "no. I can't recall a thing that's why I was coming to you two."

"Why," Harry asked raising an eyebrow.

"Because, all the weird stuff happens to you two. Also…" Flash paused looking around and whispered, "All my Spidey merch is gone. Not only that, but I wake up and I'm a sophomore again; what's up with that?!"

"What's up with what?" someone from behind Flash asked, that someone being Eddie. "Hey Flash, you ain't buggin my bro and Harry are you?"

"w-what, no, I…" Flash stuttered. He was shocked to see Brock not in Ravencroft that he couldn't find his voice to make an excuse. Peter then interjected.

"We were discussing a group science project we have, Mr. Warren put Flash with me and Harry." Eddie nodded in understanding.

"Hey, what's going on?" Gwen asked getting back from the nurse's office. She no long had tissue in her nose but it was still puffy and red. Flash had to wonder if it still hurt because she had fresh tear stains on her cheeks. Eddie walked past Flash when he saw Gwen's red face and looked her over.

"What happened?!" Eddie asked with genuine concern and anger lacing his voice.

"What, me, nothing, you should see the other guy," Gwen joked trying to ease Eddie's nerves. He then gently cupped her face to examine the damage further. She blushed at his touch tried to not make eye contact. His brow furrows as she came up with a lame excuse, "besides, I was stupid enough to not see the ball coming."

"Who threw it?" Eddie asked causing Peter to involuntary flinch.

"Ah, just some random guy, nothing to make a fuss about," Gwen brushed off the incident and decided to changes subject, "Anyway, how did things go with Ann?" she asked slightly faltering at the end looking rather annoyed

Eddie deflated at the mention of his former girlfriend, "as it turns out she didn't fill the tank up and had pulled the spark plugs out. Fortunately, the tow truck had some spare gas and plugs, I think she was just trying to stir up trouble." he said. He then looked back to Gwen, "Now about your nose, how is it?"

She gave a half smile, a sign to Eddie that meant something wasn't right with her. "Its fine, you shouldn't worry about me so much."

He flashed a smile at her, "my life, my choice. Besides, you need somebody here to keep an eye on you."

She lowered her head and muttered, "But you're going to leave eventually… so why be a burden on you?" Eddie then looked at her confused as to ask her where that idea came from, but was cut off from questioning her by the P.A. blaring on:

"ALL STUDENTS PLEASE HEAD TO THE AUDITORIUM! ALL STUDENTS PLEASE HEAD TO THE AUDITORIUM!"

Gwen took that as a cue to leave and followed the flow of students that crowded the halls. Peter and the other two boys just looked at each other all wondering the same thing: what was going on and what was next for them?

A small growl caught in Eddie's throat, he glared at a group of giggling girls as Gwen passed. He particularly looked at a girl with brown hair with blond highlights, "something's not right and I'm going to find out why…"


	2. Chapter 2

Chap.2

**HI I added a little more to chapter 1 since I cut it off in the most least interesting way.**

Peter sat next to Harry while Gwen was a few seats away from them. She must have been cold because she suddenly put her hoodie on and flipped the hat up.

The principle then walked drawing everyone's attention. "Morning students, I have some exciting news to share! We are going to have a musical play and you are all going to participate!" there were groaning students in the audience, "now, now, you don't even know what we're preforming; besides it will be part of your grade for the semester." The groans suddenly got louder, the principle still carried on.

"The play we'll be doing is: The Emperor of Music." The groans suddenly halted and then several girls began squealing in delight. Peter looked over to see if Gwen was one of them, but just saw the girl tighten the strings of her hood to hide her face as the principle continued. "We'll be having seniors auditioning first this week, so be sure to decide quickly on what you want to do."

When the assembly was over, Flash listened to Liz and Sally gush over the announcement with minor annoyance. He was in an alternate reality and no one else but him and the boys of the nerd heard knew about it.

"Flash you're not still mad that Mr. Warren wanted me to be tutored by Petey, are you?" Liz asked seeing that he had an annoyed look on his face. So they we're still dating, but why was she being tutored now, when it happened when they became Juniors?

"And if I am?" he asked making seem like he was still annoyed. He actually didn't know if his doppelganger was or not but he wanted to play it safe. Flash may not be the smartest student in midtown but he was far from an idiot…most of the time.

"C'mon Flash, it's not Liz's fault she got stuck with the King of the Geeks." Sally said and then chuckled, "it's hilarious, though, that he thinks that ditching Spacy-Stacy will make him less of a dork!"

"Speaking of the Space cadet, why is Glory talking to her?" Liz pointed to the dark skinned girl as she was having a pleasant conversation with the nervous looking blond. Gwen then pulled a ragged stuffed bunny toy from her bag. It had stuffing poking out and an eye hanging by a string.

Sally then looked at Liz frantic, "I don't know but we better save her before she catches nerditis."

The two cheerleaders walk over to Gwen as she was speaking to Glory, "so I was think about turning it into a change purse and-."

"What do you think you're doing?!" Sally practically yelled, making Gwen jump from the pitch. She instinctively covered her ears as Sally continued. "Who says you can talk to our friend?!"

"Yeah sure, yell louder, it's not like I need to hear or anything." Gwen muttered whilst Liz pushed Glory away by the shoulders while her friend protested.

Taking notice that people passing and staring, Sally lowered her voice, "Look weirdo, just because Parker is tutoring Liz doesn't mean you can just hang out with us now, so why don't you just go away?" Sally said pointedly.

"Fine, whatever, Glory and I will just get Fs on our sewing projects, then," Gwen said glaring angrily but started to walk away as she saw Sally's jaw drop.

Then Glory gave her friends a sour look and said dripping in sarcasm, "Thanks a lot Sal. Now I got to go and repair the bridge you just burned."

"W-what project were you doing?" Liz asked nervously.

"We had to trade items from our childhood that need repaired. Then we give each other preferences on what we want to fix of change. But thanks to you two, I got to pull teeth to even get a list from her." Glory reprimanded.

Sally looked guilty for a minute but then covered it by saying, "well if she acted normal then there wouldn't be a problem." Flash couldn't help but shake his head, why does Rand put up with her?

…

Their first class was math Peter and Harry filed in the room, but they noticed that Gwen seemed to be dragging her feet as she came into the room. Whatever was bugging her seemed to have caused her mood to shift drastically. She was tense and looked rather uncomfortable.

As she sat down in the desk next to Peter the teacher spoke, "alright class, the results of last Friday's test." The woman with pointed glasses spoke, Mrs. Huckabee, Peter recalled. She passed out the papers. "Mr. Parker, Mr. Osborne, job well done as usual. Eugene good job, nice improvement…"

Then the woman the sighed in frustration as she got to Gwen, "Miss Stacy, I honestly don't know what to say about you." She laid her paper in front of her, "if only you would spend less time listening to music and more time paying attention in class you might actually improve. Please try harder next time and keep your doodling in art class."

Peter saw that she had a D on her worksheet. The paper also had tons of eraser marks showing how she was trying to solve the problem, and then it looked like she gave up halfway and started drawing hearts, cats, and facial expressions. She finished the sheet but it was cluttered in silly faces.

Gwen mustered up a smile, "sorry, Mrs. H, I'll try harder."

The woman sighed again but didn't stop there, "Gwen, you said that the last time. You're on medication but you still never seem to improve in my class. It makes me even wonder if you even have a condition in the first place. I heard that you do excellent in Mr. Warren's class as well as English and most of History. So why can't you make the same effort here in my class?"

Gwen started to fidget with her sleeve and avoid eye contact, "I don't know. I-I guess I-I'm tired." Peter could her Liz and Sally snicker in the back, and he had to keep reminding himself that they weren't friends yet. Flash frowned as well but it was directed at the teacher.

"You're always tired Miss Stacy, Perhaps you should think about going to bed at a better time, then." The teacher said near sarcastic.

Gwen lowered her head and refreshed her smile, "yeah, okay, thanks for the suggestion Mrs. H." when Mrs. Huckabee walked away shaking her head, Gwen's face dropped to a frown. She was like that for the rest of the period.

Art was next on the list and as the classes transitioned, Peter went to Gwen and asked if she was okay. She didn't look at him as she got to her locker to get her supplies, "what do you think," she muttered softly with a downward gaze. "She called me out in front of the class. I'm barley making it by the skin of my teeth as it is." She paused to close her locker and continued.

"The only reason I even get the other classes is because I cram most of the stuff, heck if not for your family, I'd forget to eat." She paused taking a breather. "I'm sorry, I don't putting all this on you, and you've got enough to deal with tutoring Liz and the internship at E.S.U."

Harry then came up to them, "oh man guys I have an 'A' in math, this is fantastic!" his joy didn't last, though, as he heard Gwen mutter something under her breath. He didn't catch it but Peter did, causing the boy to do a double take.

"_Whooped-doo for you, Gobby._"

Peter was defiantly sure he heard that right. Now Harry took note of Gwen's sour mood and then he asked her the same question that Peter did. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine, now will everyone stop asking me that," she said exasperated. "I collapse once and now everyone is treating me like glass." She said storming off in a huff. Peter and Harry turned to look at each other unsure how to make of her.

…

Lunchtime seemed to come all too quickly as Peter, Harry and Gwen just got out of History and each were feeling burnt out.

"Finally out of that stuffy room, any longer and I was gonna die," Gwen commented.

Harry grimaced at her words, "well that's a morbid thing to say. It's just history class."

"Yes, long, dull, boring, history class." Gwen said drawing out every word with sarcasm. "I just want some food, I'm hungry!"

Peter was hungry too and the fact that he skipped breakfast didn't help at all. They sat down with their food gathered at the usual lunch table (at least that was still the same.) Gwen sat next to Harry but then eagerly scooted over and Eddie then placed himself right in between them.

"Hey guys, how's it hangin'?"

"Fine bro," answered Peter trying to pass as 'normal' with a wide grin lighter tone. He sitting across from the three unsure how to feel about this Eddie, he felt that any minute he could turn into Venom. Eddie smiled at him happily though and nodded. Harry crossed his arms and jutted his chin out while Gwen gave Eddie a pleasant smile.

"I'm glad to see you're feelin better, you were giving me daggered this morning. I hadn't seen you glare that much since the time I hit a baseball through the garage, and broke your chemistry set." He said taking a bite of spaghetti.

A chorus of cackles then caught Eddie's attention. Again he saw his ex-girlfriend and a group of senior girls looking at a pink book.

Ann Weying's green eyes then sparked in recognition and she smiled cunningly and waved. Eddie wasn't sure why and scowled back at her. Seeing this Peter realized that Gwen was quietly staring back at the table as well but with a crestfallen expression.

Why did those girls seem to distress them?

"So Bro when are you going for in the musical, you going to work back stage?" Peter asked trying to get Eddie's attention away from the senior girls; it had worked because the sunny blonde turned his head in Pete's direction. He pondered the question for a moment, before answering.

"I don't know yet. What bout you, Bro?" Eddie asked with his eyes looking less heated. This Eddie held no hatred for Peter it would seem. He wasn't going to take a risk and ask him just yet.

"What are you doing here, anyway," Harry asked annoyed that Gwen was no longer sitting next to him. "Shouldn't you be with the jocks?"

Eddie's eyes flashed at Harry for a moment and answered, "I don't know, shouldn't you be with the rich kids. They don't call you Green Goblin for nothing." The comment caused the other two boys to nearly choke on their food while Eddie gave Harry a mocking smirk.

"Wait, what did you call him?" Peter asked wide eyed. Harry was too stunned to even speak.

Eddie cocked his head to the side confused, "Green Goblin, remember? It's the name all the rich kids and jocks gave him." He told Peter simply as he took another bite of his food. He then wiped his mouth and turned to Gwen.

"Hey Gwen, are you goin' to try for a singing role?" Eddie asked giving her an encouraging smile. Gwen's face suddenly flushed as she made eye contact with her empty tray. She clearly was lost in her own thoughts while they were speaking.

"N-no way, besides I'm not that good," she reasoned pitifully. Eddie then mimicked her pose mirroring the girl on his left.

"Yeah, sure, and I'm the blob from outer space," he remarked not knowing the uncertainty he instilled in the other two boys. Eddie then placed a hand on her shoulder and grinned, "C'mon Gwen you're a natural when it comes to music, it's in your blood."

She brightened at Eddie's words, "maybe, I'll try but I probably get some kind of lame part like tree or something…"

Eddie gave a hum and tapped his chin in thought; he then looked to Peter and Harry with a huge smile. "Hey guys… why don't we give Gwen, here, a little boost of encouragement and try out for some of the roles?"

"Oh c'mon guys, you don't-" Gwen protested feeling that was asking too much of them.

"Sounds good to me, bro," Peter replied smiling thought she needed it after the day she's had so far.

"I'm in!" Harry answered quickly; his motivation though, was for an entirely different reason.

"Great!" Eddie cheered as he wrapped an arm around said girl and pressed her against his chest and Gwen turned pink with a smile.

Seeing the affectionate looks that passed between the two blonds, a feeling of jealousy ignited in Harry. The rusty-headed boy excused himself for a minute and headed to the bathroom. As he opened the heavy doors Harry threw Eddie a heated glare.

…

"You don't have to try out if you don't want to, Pete." Gwen said as they sat on the bus. The day had finally come to a close much to Peter's relief.

"Why wouldn't I, after all what are friends for?" he asked rhetorically with a smile.

Gwen gave a humorless laugh, "and here I thought you were getting tired of me. You were starting to live up to being a 'stuck-up Egg-head' as Flash would put it."

"I-I'm sure I didn't mean it like that," Peter assured as Gwen tilted her head curiously. Speaking of Flash, Pete saw that he was reading a newspaper. As their stop came up all three of the teens got off and then the blond football player the addressed Peter.

"Hey, Puny-Parker, check out forty for our 'science project.'" The jock said shoving the paper in his face.

"science project, what science," Gwen asked suspiciously as Peter took a wide-eyed look at the article headline:

ROBBERS CAUGHT IN GIANT WEB!


End file.
